JP Morgan Adds To BetaBuilder ETFs

Today, J.P. Morgan Asset Management rolled out an ETF that will compete with funds tracking the MSCI EAFE Index. The JPMorgan BetaBuilders International Equity ETF (BBIN) tracks the Morningstar Developed Markets ex-North America Target Market Exposure Index at a price competitive with that of the leading EAFE fund, the $71 billion iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF (IEFA).

BBIN comes with an expense ratio of 0.07% and lists on Cboe Global Markets, the parent company of ETF.com.

“BBIN has been designed to provide investors with efficient access to the almost $50 trillion global equities market, a core allocation for any diversified portfolio,” said Joanna Gallegos, U.S. Head of ETFs at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

“BBIN gives investors broad, diversified access to the developed international equity market, at a fraction of the price of purchasing across individual markets,” she added.

Methodology

At that price, the new fund matches IEFA’s expense ratio, and by excluding North America rather than just the U.S., the fund’s index offers similar coverage as the MSCI EAFE Index. It selects its components from 21 developed markets, and as of the end of October, the index included more than 1,000 securities, the prospectus says.

BBIN’s underlying index seeks to cover the top 85% of stocks in its designated markets, the document says, indicating that while its price is competitive with that of IEFA, its depth of coverage is more similar to the older $61.5 billion iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA). EFA holds 926 securities, while IEFA holds 2,471, with its index covering roughly 98% of its targeted markets. EFA is much more expensive than either IEFA or BBIN, charging 0.32% in expense ratio.   

J.P. Morgan has made a splash with its BetaBuilders family, which offers plain-vanilla cap-weighted exposure to key asset classes at rock-bottom pricing. The addition of BBIN brings the total number of funds in the lineup to eight, with total assets under management of more than $15 billion. The largest ETF in the BetaBuilders family is the $4.5 billion JPMorgan BetaBuilders Japan ETF (BBJP).

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]